Brand new LV3S/J, cant change language.

[Iusedtolovesony]

Guys,
Spent ages looking and deciding to buy the LV3.
I live in Spain and bought it online. When it came I plugged it in and waited.
Eventually the Windows Vista came up and asked for language details. It was in Spanish so left it for the moment as I bought this in Spain, thought I should keep it Spanish for registering etc and then change the language to English.
I made recovery discs then went to change the language. Failed, failed and failed again.
E-mailed Sony support and no reply.
Spanish not good enough technically to call support here.
Any ideas?
The only boolet that comes says the recovery discs will put the machine back to factory settings. To me that means as it came out of the box, but without understanding the full instructions on the PC as they come up I dare not guess and screw up.
This machine is just sitting here and doing nothing.
Can anyone help please?

[Blencogo]

Hi itstony and welcome to Club Vaio.

Unfortunately you have chosen the wrong Operating System if you wish to download the Microsoft Langusge Pack. The Language Pack changes are not supported on Vista Home Premium. This is only available with Vista Enterprise and Vista Ultimate.

Your best way forward is to Upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate and download the language pack. Whichever way you do it is going to cost you money as all free upgrades to Windows 7 will only be to the Home Premium version which will not help you. You need to buy the Ultimate Upgrade disc.

Someone did post this link in the past - I don't know if it works but it may be worth a look.

http://www.froggie.sk/index.html

[Iusedtolovesony]

Blencogo, Thank you for sparing the time to reply.
In for a penny, in for a pound, because I have to resolve the issue with no choice but to upgrade.
Can I do this online and download, or do I need to buy the discs?

What is the best route to take to upgrage to W7?
I do not want to go and buy the software and then learn I could have got this via Sony or that I have an upgrade offer.

I took a quick look online and see Ultimate is $199 and then GB219 when you select it.
I hate it when I see the USA prices for everything are cheaper than the rest of the world!

[divsec]

i cannot belive you need to spend all that money, surely Sony will sell you the upgrade to W7 and then you can set the language on install?

[Blencogo]

You can only set the input language in International Settings - but this is nothing like an operating system in the correct language. Microsoft provide a number of language packs for this purpose but you can only download them if you have the Enterprise or Ultimate Versions.

Microsoft have made it illegal for Sony to offer an upgrade that includes a language change. As far as Microsoft is concerned itstony only holds their licence for Spanish Windows.

I think the simplest way is to get the Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade from Sony and then buy an upgrade to Ultimate using the Anytime Upgrade disc = £106 from Amazon.co.uk. The advantage of this is that they are all upgrades so you will keep your preinstalled programs, settings and data.

Alternatively the cheapest way would be to buy a full version English Windows 7 Home Premium (£90?) and install it - but this would be a clean install and unless you are proficient with computers this could prove troublesome. You will also lose all the preinstalled programs.

Buying a computer with the OS in a foreign language to yours is a false economy.